Natsu Tanimoto
Natsu Tanimoto or Hermit (Hāmitto (ハーミット?)) was the Sixth Fist of Ragnarok, and is now the disciple of Ma Sougetsu, an unofficial captain of the Shinpaku Alliance, and holder of the Moon Symbol of YOMI. Appearance Tanimoto is a tall fair-skinned man with dark blue eyes, spiky yet wavy chin-length blond hair, with a well-defined and fairly muscular frame. A noticeable treat of Tanimoto is the look his eyes during the situation he is in. While maintaining his kind-demeanor, his eyes are big and full of calmness. When angered or fighting, his eyes narrow with small cat-like pupils. A recurring theme in his appearance is that he is considered quite handsome by nearly all girls near his age. Tanimoto typically wears a white-grey shirt with a red cross on it, similar to the design of a crusader, at school. As Hermit, Tanimoto wears a dark hood and cloak with arm bands and leather boots, with pentagrams sewn into his leather gloves. Originally, the symbols on his gloves were that of the Roman numeral number six (VI). However, after his defection from Ragnarok, he changes the symbols to a pair of pentagrams. In the original series, he had very long blonde hair. In fact he resembled a light skinned Takeda if his hair isn't tied, but still wore his trademark battle coat. Personality Tanimoto is the president of the drama club at Kenichi's school and is considered to be the school's "prince", pretending to be a kind and soft spoken student, which plays well seeing how he is popular with both teachers and students. To further the illusion that he is a gentle and kind person, he makes sure not to reveal his muscular built, and even claims that the sun is bad for his skin just to prevent his body from being shown off during the camping trip. He claims to have only joined the drama club to practice deceiving others, and is only nice because he perceives popularity as a way to control people. In truth, he is cold, ill-tempered, and extremely prideful. He also whacks Kenichi and Nijima or threaten them whenever they try getting too close (both figuratively and literally). Tanimoto also can't stand it when Kenichi calls him Natsu-chan (Lil' Natsu) to which he irritably responds "Who's Natsu-chan?!". The words left by his sister Kaede as a request not to lose affected him tremendously, to the point where he will continue to fight even if he is knocked unconscious as seen in his second fight with Kenichi, and later in his death match with Chou Enshin. However, this also leads to him refusing to quit anything such as when he stubbornly refuses to stopping playing Othello with Honoka until he manages to beat her which, in turn, leads to him being regularly forced to do anything she asks him to do, everytime he loses. After losing to Kenichi, he regularly discards his kind personality to those that don't already know about his true nature. Despite refusing to accept Kenichi and the others as his friends, Tanimoto's demeanor has changed considerably since meeting Kenichi and his sister. While still maintaining his cold-attitude, he has become less hostile towards people getting close to him, particularly Honaka. Surprised at how strong Kenichi believes in the ideals of friendship and how they have helped him to come so far as a martial artist have also caused him to actually come to Kenichi and his friends' aid, though he always claims he is merely doing it for his own needs such as revenge. A running gag is that whenever Kenichi calls Natsu his "best friend", he immediately becomes infuriated and angrily refutes the claim to which Kenichi either ignores or is oblivious to. Plot Outline Tanimoto pretended to have befriended Kenichi, but in truth, he despises Kenichi's "false" justice. He later fights with Kenichi on top of a moving bus, but the resultant draw leaves him disappointed and forces him to leave the school for a few days in order to train. When he returns, he meets Honoka after saving her from thugs, and ends up taking her to his house. Honoka befriends him and begins to visit his house often, where she often breaks things by accident. He soon, though reluctantly, grows fond of her because she resembles his younger sister. He is shocked to learn that Honoka is Kenichi's sister, and despite his protests over Loki's suggestions to use her as bait to lure Kenichi, he was not able to go against the orders, as Loki claims to have taken them from Kensei, who had saved him as a child. However, Odin reveals that Loki had tricked him and despite forgiving Hermit, Hermit leaves Ragnarok. It is revealed by Loki that Hermit and his sister were orphans before being adopted by a rich businessman (Tanimoto was the man's family name). The businessman later married a female doctor who then became his stepmother. His sister died from a disease and left him with the words "don't lose." The businessman died of unknown causes, and his wife was put under arrest as the primary suspect of his murder, fostering a distrust in doctors in the young Natsu. Natsu inherited the company, but unfortunately was not able to manage much of it, leaving it to the corrupt workers who worked under him and losing a vast amount of his fortune in the process. When the corrupt men tried to kill him, Ogata saved him, leaving him in debt to the master and joining Ragnarok as a result. Tanimoto returns to school as the prince once again, though drops his facade upon seeing Kenichi, telling him that he will stay there until he gets revenge for losing to him. After leaving Ragnarok, he is constantly pestered by Niijima to join the Shinpaku Alliance, but constantly refuses, even ending up taking up Kenichi's habit of calling him an "alien" at multiple points. Eventually, he comes to aid Shinpaku in order to get revenge on Loki during their final battle against Ragnarok, though is unable to defeat Loki as Berserker had already done so. Angry at Berserker for taking his match with Loki away from him, Hermit fights with and defeats Berserker in a grueling battle. Hermit's role in the YOMI arc is relatively small compared to the other Shinpaku members. He takes care of Kenichi for a short time away from Ryozanpaku and temporarily feels it is okay for Kenichi to stay with him after seeing Apachai knock him out. He also has information gathering operatives that work under him to help get information on martial artists or organizations throughout the underground world of martial artists. He transports members of the Shinpaku Alliance to the DofD tournament in his own boat, but unlike the others, his intention is not to participate in it; but rather to find his master. He is believed to be dead when his boat is blown up by the missile defenses of the private island where the tournament occurs and the rest of the members of Shinpaku are unable to find him. He later shows up alive on the island, finds Sougetsu and trains under him again. He comes to the aid of the Shinpaku alliance in their fight against Fortuna and plays a pivotal role in defeating him by using the Kyousa to significantly damage Fortuna. He is later called "Natsu-Chan" instead of "Tanimoto-Kun" by Kenichi during the camping trip, which he abhors to the extent of wanting to attack Kenichi. During Boris's attack, Tanimoto attacks the other soldiers, who make note that he was not listed as a member of Shinpaku Alliance, which was likely based on the list of Shinpaku Alliance members from the D of D tournament, as well as the fact that he was largely absent for its duration. He also seems to be interested in James Shiba as a master and wishes to see his improvements on Takeda since the DofD tournament. During the second fight between Kenichi and Takeda, Tanimoto was rather amazed by the fact that Takeda could even use Ryuusei Seikuken, one of the Elder's 108 techniques that was only shown to have been taught to Kenichi, yet Takeda managed to use it. This could be an indication that Tanimoto is interested in fighting Takeda when he is stronger. Natsu Tanimoto's master Ma Sougetsu is revealed to be a member of Yami and has asked for Tanimoto to be the new member with the symbol of the moon of YOMI. In chapter 355, he faces the temporary member named Chou Enshin in a death match. Facing the disadvantage of fighting a stronger and faster fighter, Tanimoto is almost overwhelmed by his opponent and even loses consciousness for a few moments. While unconscious and trying to get back up, he sees his sister, Honoka, and even to his surprise and annoyance, Kenichi, who he reluctantly realizes has become one of the closest people in his life. He also realized that despite Kenichi's oddities and lack of talent, Kenichi regularly persists in fighting stronger people. He strikes himself in the head to calm down, a tactic formerly used by Kenichi while fighting Odin, and finally manages to defeat his opponent, earning the symbol of the Moon and become the tenth official member of YOMI. When the Shinpakuu Alliance planned to follow Ryozanpaku to Okinawa, Natsu refused to go despite being asked by Takeda. Natsu is shown in a YAMI base with Kajima, Rachel, and Chikage during the the time that Ryozanpaku attacks the Okinawa YAMI base. When Kajima had tried to use his mind reading ability on Natsu, Kajima was unable to read his thougts. Skills & Abilities Innate Talent: From a young age, Tanimoto stood out in talent. This made his adopted father recognize his great potential growth to become his future successor to his company. Combined with his unwavering resolve to succeed, Tanimoto has proven himself able to master seemingly any skill or technique he sets his mind to. This has allowed him quickly master one of Sougetsu's ultimate techniques in under a few hours and also become highly proficient in a number of skills, including acting, school work, home making (purely to stop Honako from ruining his house), and especially martial arts. While only a high-schooler, he has become highly proficient in a number of Chinese Kenpo styles and techniques, enough that Kenichi compared him to the level of intensity his masters put him through. This talent has also repeatedly helped him to make tremendous jumps in combat prowess. Initially, he was only the 6th Fist of Ragnarak but later surpassed and ultimately defeated the 2nd Fist Berserker. Even his master Sougetsu, applauded Tanimoto's growth from training himself in such a short time. '''Genius Intellect: '''Tanimoto has repeatedly shown himself to be a keen thinker. While being raised to become his adopted father's successor, Tanimoto proved to be a quick learner. In school, despite his secret life, he was able to keep up a perfect grade record and effectively tutor others. In battle, Tanimoto is highly perceptive, able to quickly see through his opponent's attack patterns and battle tactics to better counter them. '''Great Strength: '''Tanimoto is deceptively strong, an attribute from the intense training Sougetsu put him through. As Tanimoto follows Sougetu's philosophy of destroying his opponent, his attacks are shown to be powerful and lethal. With a single hand, he could demolish a tree trunk and crush a car door. In terms of upperbody strength, he can easily pick up and throw a man twice his size across a room. '''Great Speed: '''Tanimoto's is able to strike at such speed and rapid succession, leaving little time for his opponent's dodge or counterattack. He is also just as evasive, able to dodge and block most attacks with no wasted movement and just as easily counter. '''Great Physical Prowess: '''Through all the hellish training Sougetsu put him through, Tanimoto is at peak physical condition, as evident from his well-built muscular frame, which was applauded by Ma Kensei. Mostly, Tanimoto has use his superb shape to accel in all forms of sports at school. In battle, Tanimoto repeatedly demonstrates immense agility and flexability. He is able to contort and shift his body stance to effortlessly change his attack patterns and strike from various angles. He is als a remarkable acrobat, able to use his agility to jump several stories high and scale various terrains. His prowess is shown to be naturally so high, that it is hard at times for him to hold back, even at time annoyed with himself to drawing too much attention from breaking school records. '''Expert Manipulator: '''In his belief that he needs to control others to survive, Tanimoto has become a remarkable actor, able to convince his entire school he is a kind-hearted man. He is also able to manipulate situations to further his goals, as seen when he tricked the school into believing Kenichi was a bully to make him push up his training. He was also very crafy in this regard from a young age, able to convince the unsocial Sougetsu to train him. Techniques *Uryuu Banda (Chinese: Wu Long Pan Da): An open palm slap striking towards the ground with heavy momentum. *Sei Shin Kou: Tanimoto grabs onto his opponent's waist and slams his own waist into his opponent's while placing his other hand above his head to guard against further attacks. *Kyousa (Grim Cross): Sougetsu Ma's ultimate move uses two weaker attacks that hit the enemy's sides with little effect and a third primary attack toward the center at the stomach to augment damage in a similar manner to a gamma knife. Battle Log Single Battles vs. Kenichi round 1 (draw) vs. Kenichi round 2 (interrupted by Loki) vs. Kenichi round 3 (lose) vs. Berserker (win) vs. Chinese thug (win) vs. Chou Enshin (win) Team Battle with Thor, Siegfried, Takeda, and Ukita vs. Ragnarok Thugs (win) with Kisara, Thor, Siegfried, Takeda, Freya, and Niijima vs. Fortuna (win) Trivia *His nickname Hermit references the norse god Odin's habit of traveling Midgard as an old man. This relationship carries further on to Hermit's admission into YOMI, when he is a fellow member of the top ten alongside Odin. *Out of all of the members of the Shinpaku Alliance, only he and Takeda have well known masters who have ties with Ryozanpaku. Category:YOMI Category:History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi character Category:Shinpaku Alliance Category:Ragnarok